State releases preliminary teacher evaluations

Central Florida teachers appear to meet or exceed expectations

The state has released preliminary results of teacher evaluations on Tuesday and it appears that most teachers in Central Florida are meeting or exceeding expectations.

According to the results, Polk County teachers topped the list for Central Florida at 100 percent of its teachers performing effectively or highly effective.

Osceola followed at 99.9 percent, then Seminole County and Marion County at 99.2 percent, Orange at 98.9 percent, Brevard at 98.8 percent, Volusia at 97.4 percent, Lake at 97.1 percent and Flagler at 97 percent.

The ratings released Tuesday are part of the state's contentious evaluation system that was first passed by state legislators two years ago.

Each school in the district used a variety of criteria to evaluate their teachers and then ranked them as highly effective, effective, needs improvement or unsatisfactory.

Only 306 teachers -- out of nearly 190,000 across the state -- were given "unsatisfactory" rankings.This year's ratings are very similar to ones released in 2012.

But the scores varied widely among districts. Some districts reported they had as many as eight times the number of highly effective teachers as other districts.

When asked about the discrepancy, state education officials said local districts have flexibility over deciding how to evaluate teachers.

The evaluations have come under fire, because part of the evaluations is based on test scores.

Click here to see the results and find out how teachers at local schools ranked.

Watch Local 6 for a full report.

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